Indian Classical Music And Sikh Kirtan by Gobind Singh Mansukhani (M.A., LL.B, Ph.D.) © 1982 School of Music |
| School of Music In Medieval India, there was school of music called gharanas. The world gharana literally means a family. So these families or guilds specialised in particular styles or traditions pf music. There were in act no teaching institutes, because they seldom accepted students from outside. These grahanas were experts in dhrupad or khayal or other forms of music. The difference in gharanas lies in their style of presentation, musical graces and accent and not in the basic structure of the raga. One of the most important schools was the Gwalior gharana because the musicians and their descendants lived in that city (Gwalior). Mian Ghulam Rasool, the singer of pure khayal, was the originator of the Gwalior gharana. Tansen, the famous musician, was the founder of two gharanas [10]. Then there was the Agra gharana, which originally specialised in dhrupad, but later on patronised khayal. Khuda Bash was the originator of the Agra gharana. Besides these, there were Jaipur gharana, Agra gharana. Besides these, there were Jaipuri gharana, Delhi gharana, and Patiala gharana. These guilds were noted for their characteristic styles, which might consist of the tempo, alaap, permutations, type of grace notes, jumping of notes and sequence of notes. There were also guilds specialising in playing on a particular musical instrument. Schools in the modern sense of teaching institutes were established in the twentieth century. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar started the "Gandharva Sangeet Mahavidyalya" in 1901 at Lahore. He set up the second school in Bombay in 1908. Soon thereafter, Gandharva Sangeet Mahavidyalyas were started in many important town in India. Another famous musician, Vishnu Naryan Bharkhande, reorganised the Baroda Maharaja’s training centre under the name of Baroda State Music School. This subsequently grew into the Music College of the University of Baroda. Bhatkhande also helped the establishment of Madhav Music College in 1918 at Gwalior. He also started the Maris College of Music at Lucknow in 1926, which was subsequently renamed after him. These schools and colleges train students in courses of classical music leading to diplomas and degrees in Indian music awarded by Universities and some recognised institutions. Indian classical music has been recognised as a subject of study for graduate and postgraduate examinations of certain Indian Universities. Rabindra Bharati, Calcuttra, and Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh (Madhya Pradesh) are special institutions recognised by the Government of India for teaching and research in music. |